Florida's death row inmates: 1924 to present

Florida's death row inmates: 1924 to present

Florida's death penalty was not officially recognized until 1924, and between 1924 and 1964, 196 people were executed in Florida. Capital punishment was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1972 but overturned in 1979. After 1979 until August 2013, 78 people have been put to death in the Sunshine State. See some of Florida's past death row inmates and the crimes they committed.

Frank Johnson was the first inmate executed in Florida's electric chair on October 7, 1924. He had been convicted of murder in Duval County. Johnson, also known as Luther Dorill, was convicted of shooting and killing a Jacksonville railroad engineer during the course of a burglary in December 1923.

At the age of 33, Guiseppe Zangara was executed on March 20, 1933. He had been convicted of murder in Dade County. Zangara attempted to kill Franklin D. Roosevelt, but instead killed Chicago mayor Anton Cermak at Miami's Bayfront Park on February 15, 1933. According to authorities, Zangara swore at the witnesses because no cameramen were there to take photographs, and said "Push the button. Go on and push the button" before he was electrocuted.

Avon Ellwood North was executed at age 37 for murder in Polk County. North, a funeral director in Fort Meade and Lake Wales, was executed on Oct. 4, 1954 for the 1951 murder of Betty Albritton, widow of his former partner in the cattle business, by poisoning and then strangling. (Shown handcuffed to Sheriff Pat Gordon.)

Sie Dawson was the last person in Florida to be executed before the Supreme Court found it unconstitutional. He was executed on May 12, 1964 at age 48 for the 1960 murder of Maggie Clayton and her two year old son Roger of Chattahoochee.

From May 1964 to May 1979 there were no executions in Florida as the Supreme Court held that capital punishment was unconstitutional. During this time, 95 men and one woman on Florida's Death Row were commuted to life in prison.

John Spenkelink became the first death row inmate to be executed on May 25, 1979 under the new statutes. Spenklelink was 30 years old when he was executed for the death of a Leon County hitchhiker.

After 10 years on death row, Robert Sullivan was put to death on Nov. 30, 1983. Sullivan was executed for the murder of Donald Schmidt, an assistant manager at a Howard Johnson restaurant in Homestead, where Sullivan had worked.

Timothy Palmes was 37 when we was executed in Nov. 1984. Palmes was convicted in 1976 of the death of James Stone, who was stabbed 18 times and beaten with a hammer during the course of a robbery.

David Funchess was the first Vietnam veteran to be executed in the United States. He was put to death by electric chair on April 22, 1986 for the 1974 stabbing deaths of the 53-year-old Anna Waldrop and the 56-year-old Clayton Ragan during a holdup in a Jacksonville lounge. His execution was widely protested.

After almost 10 years on death row, Ted Bundy was executed on Jan. 24, 1989. Bundy was suspected in as many as 36 murders in five states. He was the convicted killer of Kimberly Diane Leach, and Florida State University sorority sisters Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman. He was electrocuted for the murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Diane Leach.

John Mills, 41, was sentenced to death for the 1982 death of Lester Lawhon. Mills was convicted of bludgeoning and shooting Lawhon during a home invasion in Wakulla County. He was executed on Dec. 6, 1996.

Gerald Stano was on death row for a little over 14 years when we was executed in March 1998. Stano confessed to killing 41 women in Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He was convicted of the 1973 death of 17-year-old Cathy Scharf of Port Orange.

On March 30, 1998, Judias "Judy" Buenoano became the first woman to die in Florida's electric chair. Buenoano, who was 54 at the time of her execution, was convicted of 1971 slaying of her husband James Goodyear. She was also convicted for the 1980 murder of her son Michael Goodyear, and of the 1983 attempted murder of her fiancé John Gentry.

Daniel Remeta was executed on March 31, 1998 for the 1985 death of Mehrle "Chet" Reeder, a clerk at a Tenneco convenience store, in a robbery. Several other people were killed during Remeta's 18-day drug and alcohol fueled crime spree with two other teenagers.

Terry Sims was executed days after his 58th birthday for the 1985 death of a retired New York City police officer who was working as a volunteer Seminole County Deputy Sheriff, George Pfeill. He was the first Florida inmate to be put to death by lethal injection.

Bennie Demps spent 22 years on death row before being executed in June 2000. Demps was sent to death row for the 1976 murder of fellow inmate Alfred Sturgis. Demps had been in prison since his conviction in a 1971 double murder. Demps execution was delayed 33 minutes as technicians struggled to insert the lethal injection IV. His final words were, "They butchered me back there. I was in a lot of pain. They cut me in the groin; they cut me in the leg. I was bleeding profusely."

Executed on June 21, 2000, Thomas Provenzano, was convicted for a shooting rampage in Orange County that happened in 1984. Provenzano shot bailiffs William Wilkerson and Harry Dalton, along with Orange County corrections officer Mark Parker. Wilkerson was killed that day and Dalton died from his injuries in 1991. Mark Parker was paralyzed and passed away in 2009.

Aileen Wuornos was the second woman on Florida's death row to die. She was put to death on Oct. 9, 2002. Wuornos received multiple death sentences for fatally shooting six middle-aged men along the highways of central Florida in 1989 and 1990. She was the subject of a feature film, a television movie, an opera and three books.

Amos King was convicted in July 1977 for the March 1977 death of Natalie Brady. Brady was a 68-year-old widow who lived alone in a home near the Tarpon Springs Community Correctional Center, a minimum security work-release facility, where King was serving a sentence for larceny of a firearm. King was convicted of raping and killing Brady after not returning from work release. His final words before he was put to death on Feb. 26, 2003 were, "I would like the governor and the family to know I am an innocent man, and the state had evidence to that effect. I'm sorry for the victim's family, for all the things we have gone through."

Glen Ocha was executed on April 5, 2005 for the strangling death of Carol Skjerva, 28, at his home in October 1999. He said he met the woman at a bar in Kissimmee and she drove him home to Buenaventura Lakes. Ocha said they had sex, but that he got angry when the woman made fun of his anatomy. Ocha said he strangled her until his arms got tired, then hanged her and watched her die while he drank a beer. He dropped all appeals before his execution and said he wanted to die because he's sure he would kill again.

Lisa DeCarr, 15, was strangled to death in 1983 at the hands of Wayne Tompkins. Her decomposing body was found buried underneath a home in 1984. He was put to death by legal injection on Feb. 22, 2009.

After spending 32 years on death row, Larry Mann was executed in April 2013. Mann was convicted of killing Elisa Vera Nelson as she rode her bike to school in 1980. He took her to an orange grove, cut her throat and then beat her head with a pole with a concrete base. Mann then went home and tried to kill himself, telling the responding police officers he had "done something stupid." Then-Gov. Bob Graham signed Mann's first death warrant in 1986, but appeals dragged out his case.

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